A top lawmaker on Thursday morning is expected to demand a top-to-bottom review of the Social Security Administration’s management structure, following a series of disability scandals that have rocked the agency and led to widespread government scrutiny.

Rep. Sam Johnson (R., Texas), who chairs the House subcommittee that oversees Social Security, is expected to direct the Social Security Administration’s inspector general to launch the review.

The demand comes one week after the Manhattan District Attorney’s office brought a case alleging more than 100 people – including former firemen and police officers – were cheating the Social Security Disability Insurance program by improperly collecting benefits when they shouldn’t have qualified.

And the Justice Department is also looking into whether there was an improper relationship between a former Social Security judge and a disability lawyer in West Virginia and Kentucky.

The Social Security Administration primarily authorizes two kinds of benefits, one for older Americans and another for people who are no longer able to work because of health problems.

The disability program pays close to $140 billion in benefits to roughly 11 million people, making it one of the government’s largest – but least known – entitlement programs.

A number of Democrats have joined Republicans in demanding more answers from top Social Security Administration officials, as the recent scandals come at a time when the SSDI program is quickly exhausting its reserves. Its trust fund is projected to run out of money in 2016.

Mr. Johnson is expected to call for the review during a hearing at which SSA acting commissioner Carolyn Colvin and SSA inspector general Patrick O’Carroll are slated to testify. Though Mr. O’Carroll’s division is responsible for overseeing and even investigating the agency’s operations, the IG has stopped short of criticizing any of the agency’s actions with regard to the cases in New York, Puerto Rico, and West Virginia. In fact, in recent months, senior SSA officials have told Congress that disability fraud is very rare, and the IG’s office hasn’t refuted that view.

A top-to-bottom review, as likely to be demanded by Mr. Johnson, could create a more adversarial relationship between the IG and top SSA brass than has existed in recent years.

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